Sophia Mirza: a life reMEmbered …

Sophia Mirza (08.08.1973~25.11.2005)
was an active and outgoing young woman who loved to travel and to hike. She died on November 25, 2005, at age 32. Her death came nearly four years after the UK published a report on “CFS/ME” that recognised these patients were confronting medical arrogance and ignorance and just six years after contracting a “‘flu” that she could not recover from. Her mother helped to care for her bedridden daughter and told told many how medical professionals abused her by placing her, unattended, in a psychiatric ward after breaking down her door. Her initial autopsy showed no cause of death. An advocacy group arranged for a more extensive autopsy that found “unequivocal inflammatory changes” and many other abnormalities including a “fatty liver” now known to be caused by the ciguatera epitope. Sophia was the first person with myalgic encephalomyelitis to die and have the autopsy to prove she died from M.E. in England. There is a site dedicated to Sophia under Sophia’s Story.